"I love Paris in the Springtime." Cole Porter famously went on record singing the city's praises of the city in this season, yet it is never alone year-round. Autumn crowds fill leaf-strewn boulevards; summer visitors queue to savour exquisite Berthillon icecream. relishing the relative quiet as most Parisians take their annual holidays. Winter brings its own special thrill of silent snowy footpaths, green-clad council workers like so many gnomes struggling to clear the roads and gardens - and the winter sales!

There is no valid excuse to stay away from Paris at any time, but once you are there, the choices can be numbingly confusing. Left Bank, Right Bank, city or suburbs; small and intimate hotel or large and prestigious; a welter of hysterical shopping or endless museums and galleries; culture in favour of hedonism, cafes versus restaurants, bistros, bars or nightclubs? Just how do you decide?

Talk to anyone about Paris. Ask them their impressions and you will get as many viewpoints as interviewees. Many love this sprawling, sometimes smoggy city of ten million inhabitants. They forgive its pollution, its speed and pressure. Sensibly they overlook the tell-tale evidence of dogs on every footpath and the way you must sprint across even marked pedestrian crossings to avoid being run over.

Mention the city to others and their eyes glaze over, remembering a smoke-filled noisy left-bank bistro, flowers bought from a streetside stall, or the original painting they still have, years later, created on a Montmartre easel that somehow still captures the vitality of Paris.

Perhaps that is the essence of Paris. The city is a chameleon, able to change at whim, adapt to each person's private fantasy and deliver up memories that last a lifetime. Perhaps it is the sheer size of Paris too. After all in a city of this magnitude, there is room for everyone from the artist to the architect, diplomats to ditch-diggers.

Perhaps the only way to stay sane is to think of Paris as it regards itself - a collection of neighbourhoods or arrondissements. Each has its own character and special charm. Within each is all you need to sample a slice of Paris, but in a manageable amount. You can choose between the artistic bourgeois Left Bank and the more prosaic Right Bank, although don't forget the teeming Marais section. Different arrondissements shelter different ethnic communities with all their diverse entertainment and eating opportunities.

A favourite with many visitors is the Left Bank Latin Quarter, although don't panic. You won't need a word of that dead language to survive here! In the Middle Ages it was the area of the city where the intellectually elite Latin-speaking students hung out around the Sorbonne, but it matured into a bohemian, artistic area which today has morphed yet again into the esteemed address of many rich and famous Parisians. 

The adjoining Ile de la Cité and Ile St-Louis, connected islands in the Seine, are great options too for people who want the best of both worlds. From them it is a short walk across arched bridges to either the Left or Right Bank and one of several Metro stations. The Ile St-Louis, so close to the main hubbub, yet retaining a peaceful village atmosphere within the city, has several hotels, including a four-star.

Interestingly French evolved its word for pleasure, plaisir, from the Latin 'placere'. Today's Paris derives a lot of its pleasure from the Latin Quarter. Go figure!

Better yet, go visit.